>12/12/98 -- Copyright (C) 1998 The Washington Post [Article 329232, 82 lines]
>
>                          A Call Against Radio Shack
>                  Deaf Man Urges Boycott After Bad Experience
>                                By Tom Jackman
>                         Washington Post Staff Writer
>
> Almost totally deaf from birth, Michael Gannon was accustomed to
>communication troubles with clerks and cashiers when he went shopping. Still,
>nothing prepared him for the incident at the Radio Shack store near Tysons
>Corner.
>     Gannon, who reads lips and speaks almost flawlessly, entered the store to
>buy batteries for his hearing aid. A misunderstanding, which began when Gannon
>was asked for his phone number and Zip code, escalated when the clerk didn't
>realize that Gannon couldn't hear him. Without warning, Gannon says, the clerk
>punched him in the face, tackled him and sent him crashing into a glass
>display case.
>     The incident left Gannon with gashes, bruises and internal injuries.
>Radio Shack fired the clerk, who later was convicted of assault. But when
>Gannon asked the company for an apology and help with his medical bills, which
>he said total more than $10,000, Radio Shack refused.
>     Gannon filed a $1 million lawsuit last year against Radio Shack's parent
>company, Tandy Corp. Now, he and his attorneys are trying to stir up support
>for a boycott of Radio Shack stores, saying that even though the company sells
>products for the deaf, it does not train employees to deal with deaf customers.
>     The attack was emblematic of the problems faced by deaf people in
>everyday situations, Gannon said. "It's not just a misunderstanding between a
>deaf person and a clerk," he said.
>    Tandy officials declined to speak about Gannon's lawsuit or the company's
>service toward deaf customers. In court filings, Tandy denies liability in
>Gannon's claims of assault and battery and negligence.
>     The company's local lawyer, Ralph N. Boccarosse Jr., of Fairfax, said he
>is sympathetic to the obstacles deaf people face in stores. "It may very well
>be a realistic problem," he said. But Tandy does not train its employees to
>handle deaf customers, and "I don't know that there is anyone in the retail
>industry that does," Boccarosse said.
>     Gannon, a 39-year-old physical trainer from Reston, said the trouble
>began shortly after he entered the Radio Shack store on Leesburg Pike on a
>Friday night in August 1995. His brother and a friend waited in the car
>outside. Gannon grabbed the batteries, then placed them on the counter with a
>credit card.
>     He said the clerk, Donald M. Boseman, 43, asked him for his telephone
>number and Zip code, but Gannon refused because he had given it to the store
>before and was in a rush. Then Boseman questioned Gannon's signature. Gannon
>said he grew impatient and snatched the receipt back from Boseman. The clerk
>then turned his face away, and Gannon could see that he was muttering but
>couldn't tell what he was saying or asking. Finally, Boseman held out the bag
>of batteries, Gannon reached for it, and "before I knew it, I got punched in
>the face."
>     Gannon said that he was dazed from the assault and that when he asked
>what had happened, Boseman stormed around the counter and drove him into a
>glass display case. Boseman testified in Fairfax County Circuit Court that he
>had arthritis and that it was painful when Gannon snatched the receipt from
>his hand. Boseman testified that when Gannon reached for the bag, "I felt
>threatened. I didn't know whether he was going to rob the store or whatever
>and I just tried to protect myself."
>     Boseman could not be reached  for comment and his attorney did not return
>telephone calls. A store employee testified that Boseman attacked Gannon
>without provocation. The judge found Boseman guilty of assault and sentenced
>him to 45 days in jail. Boseman appealed, was again found guilty, and was
>sentenced to 10 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
>      Gannon said he is a reluctant crusader. "I'm not thinking about being
>the next Ralph Nader," he said in an interview. He said, however, that he had
>never visited a store that showed sensitivity to deaf customers, although
>about 10 percent of the population is deaf or hard of hearing.
>     Advocates for the deaf say most nonhearing people have stories of
>shopping tribulations, from humorous to horrible. Phoebe Hamill, president of
>the Potomac chapter of the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, recalled
>buying do-it-yourself plumbing tools, then returning to the store to ask for
>help.
>     "The people remembered me as a problem and were reluctant to wait on me,
>knowing I had further questions," Hamill said. "I dashed out of the store and
>broke into tears and decided plumbing repairs were not for me. I'm white but I
>thought that this is how black people probably used to feel."
>     Cheryl Heppner, executive director of the Northern Virginia Resource
>Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, said that such situations are "a
>big blow to your self-respect, the fact that you can't communicate with
>somebody." She added, "If people go through that experience often enough, they
>get so they don't want to go outside the house."
>  Accommodating deaf customers is easy, Heppner said. Clerks need only face
>the customer, so their lips can be read, or have a pad of paper and pen ready
>for the customer to use. Heppner said she has offered her services to the
>Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce to help train employees, but has had no
>takers.
>
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